Heritage Foods USA Porterhouse Pork Chops with Rosemary and Paprika

Porterhouse pork chops are cut from a section of the loin that includes a piece of the tenderloin and a loin section attached with a bone in, similar to a beef porterhouse or T-bone steak.  You can buy these chops online: Heritage Foods USA Porterhouse Pork Chops.  Right now we are running our Annual Recession Special, which gets you these heavy chops for $6 apiece - the best deal in sustainable food, put a stamp on it!

Untouched, they looked like this:

It was the day before I was cooking them, so I rubbed them with salt, rosemary, and paprika, and set them in the fridge:

The final dish:

Heritage Foods USA Porterhouse Pork Chops with Rosemary and Paprika

• Rub the chops with salt, rosemary, paprika, and pepper.  Cover and refridgerate for 24 hours.  I like to stand the chops up on their bone end so that all sides of the meat are free to air-cure.  They will leach a few teaspoons of moisture.
• Preheat the oven to 350.
• Peel and cut a couple of apples (1 per chop) into eighths.
• Heat up some fat or oil in a heavy oven-proof pan (mine is cast iron).
• Sear the chops on all sides.  Since these chops are thick and won’t tend to dry out, go ahead and get a good dark brown.  Remove the chops from the pan for a moment.
• Add a cup or so of chicken stock to the pan.  When it boils, add the apples.  Swish them around a bit to coat them with the stock and pan juices.
• Add the chops back to the pan, cover it, and place in the oven.  About 15 minutes later, test the chops for doneness (if they are somewhat resilient and the juice runs clear, good; if they are really hard or really mushy they are over or under.

• Serve the chops with rice and a good green salad.  Additionally I served mine with a pickle of fennel, sweet onion, and cucumber which I had dressed with sea salt at the beginning of cooking and shaken around a few times while I was cooking the chops.

Items used in this recipe: Heritage Foods USA Porterhouse Pork Chops